Child Theme Configurator

This is a misconfiguration created by the Bluehost auto-installer. http://www.childthemeplugin.com/child-theme-faqs/#constants” class=”scroll-to”>How to fix.

There are videos under the “Help” tab at the top right of the page. You can also view them at http://www.childthemeplugin.com/tutorial-videos

No. This is the point of using child themes. Changes to the parent theme are automatically inherited by the child theme.

A child theme is not a “copy” of the parent theme. It is a special feature of WordPress that let’s you override specific styles and functions leaving the rest of the theme intact. Quality themes should identify any deprecated functions or styles in the upgrade notes so that child theme users can make adjustments accordingly.

No. Child Theme Configurator is designed to work independently of themes and plugins. Just remember that if you re-install, you must rebuild the configuration data using the Parent/Child tab.

Arbitrary comments are not supported. Providing a high level of flexibility for previewing and modifying custom styles requires sophisticated parsing and data structures. Maintaining comments that are bound to any particular element in the stylesheet is prohibitively expensive compared to the value it would add. Although we are working to include this as an option in the future, currently all comments are stripped from the child theme stylesheet code.

Yes. Go to “Network Admin > Themes > Child Themes.” Child themes must be “Network enabled” to preview and activate for Network sites.

Child Theme Configurator PRO brings the CSS editing power of Child Theme Configurator to any WordPress Plugin installed on your website by scanning your plugins and creating custom CSS in your Child Themes. Learn more at http://www.childthemeplugin.com/child-theme-configurator-pro

Some themes (particularly commercial themes) do not correctly load parent template files or automatically load child theme stylesheets or php files.

This is unfortunate, because in the best case they effectively prohibit the webmaster from adding any customizations (other than those made through the admin theme options) that will survive past an upgrade. In the worst case they will break your website when you activate the child theme.

Contact the vendor directly to ask for this core functionality. It is our opinion that ALL themes (especially commercial ones) must pass the Theme Unit Tests outlined by WordPress.org and ALWAYS TEST CHILD THEMES BEFORE ACTIVATING (See “Preview and Activate”).

Child Theme Configurator is designed to add the minimum amount of additional overhead possible and can actually improve performance. For example:

• Child Theme Configurator creates or updates files that are already being read by the system. On the front-end, there are no database calls so WordPress can run independent of the plugin. In fact, you can remove Child Theme Configurator when you are finished setting up your child themes.
• Custom styles are applied to a stylesheet file that can be cached by the browser and/or cached and minimized by a performance caching plugin. Because the editor creates mostly “overrides” to existing styles, the file is typically smaller than other stylesheets.
• The code that drives the editor interface only loads when the tool is being used from the WordPress Admin, including Javascript and CSS. This means that it will not get in the way of other admin pages.
• The biggest performance hit occurs when you generate the Child Theme files from the Parent/Child tab, but this is a one-time event and only occurs from the WordPress Admin.

To back out of a broken child theme you have to manually rename the offending theme directory name (via FTP, SSH or your web host control panel file manager) so that WordPress can’t find it. WordPress will then throw an error and revert back to the default theme (currently twenty-fifteen).

The child theme is in your themes folder, usually

[wordpress]/wp-content/themes/[child-theme]

To prevent this in the future, always test child themes with Live Preview (theme customizer) before activating.

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These options are specific to each theme and are saved separately in the database. When you create new child themes, their options are blank.

Many of these options can be copied over to the child theme by checking “Copy Parent Theme Menus, Widgets and other Options” when you generate the child theme files on the Parent/Child tab.

If you want to set different options you can either apply them after you activate the child theme using the theme customizer, or by using the “Live Preview” under Appearance > Themes.

Every theme handles options in its own way. Most often, they will create a set of options and store them in the WordPress database. Some options are specific to the active theme (or child theme), and some are specific to the parent theme only (meaning the child theme CANNOT customize them). You will have to find out from the theme author which are which.

For most users Child Theme Configurator can be found under “Tools > Child Themes.”

WordPress Multisite (Network) users go to “Network Admin > Themes > Child Themes.”

NOTE: Only users with “install_themes” capability will have access to Child Theme Configurator.

Click the “Help” tab at the top right for a quick reference.

The easiest method is to paste the @import code provided by Google, Font Squirrel or any other Web Font site into the Web Fonts tab. The fonts will then be available to use as a value of the font-family property. Be sure you understand the license for any embedded fonts.

You can also create a secondary stylesheet that contains @font-face rules and import it using the Web Fonts tab.

Check the appropriate additional stylesheets under “Parse additional stylesheets” on the Parent/Child tab and load the Child Theme again. CTC tries to identify these files by fetching a page from the parent theme, but you may need to set them manually.

All of the styles are loaded dynamically. You must start typing in the text boxes to select styles to edit.
“Base” is the query group that contains styles that are not associated with any particular “At-rule.”

Start by clicking the “Query/Selector” tab and typing “base” in the first box. You can then start typing in the second box to retrieve the style selectors to edit.

You have to load a child theme from the Parent/Child tab for the preview to display. This can also happen when your WP_CONTENT_URL is different than $bloginfo(‘site_url’). Ajax cannot make cross-domain requests by default. Check that your Settings > General > “WordPress Address (URL)” value is correct. (Often caused by missing “www” in the domain.)

You can make any manual customizations you wish to the stylesheet. Just make sure you import the revised stylesheet using the Parent/Child panel or the Configurator will overwrite your customizations the next time you use it. Just follow the steps as usual but select the “Use Existing Child Theme” radio button as the “Child Theme” option. The Configurator will automatically update its internal data from the new stylesheet.

Child Theme Configurator automatically adds a blank functions.php file to the child theme’s directory. You can copy parent theme template files using the Files tab. If you want to create new templates and directories you will have to create/upload them manually via FTP or SSH. Remember that a child theme will automatically inherit the parent theme’s templates unless they also exist in the child theme’s directory. Only copy templates that you intend to customize.

You can override a specific CSS value globally using the Property/Value tab. See Property/Value, above.

You can add queries and selectors using the “Raw CSS” textarea on the Query/Selector tab. See Query/Selector, above.

You shouldn’t really “remove” a style from the Parent. You can, however, set the property to “inherit,” “none,” or zero (depending on the property). This will negate the Original value. Some experimentation may be necessary.

Delete the value from the input for the property you wish to remove. Child Theme Configurator only adds overrides for properties that contain values.

We always recommend relying on good cascading design over global overrides. To that end, you have ability to change the load order of child theme custom styles by entering a value in the “Order” field. And yes, you can now set properties as important by checking the “!” box next to each input. Please use judiciously.

Child Theme Configurator uses a standardized syntax for gradients and only supports two-color gradients without intermediate stops. The inputs consist of origin (e.g., top, left, 135deg, etc.), start color and end color. The browser-specific syntax is generated automatically when you save these values. See Caveats, below, for more information.

The short answer is to use a responsive Parent Theme. Some common characteristics of responsive design are:

• Avoiding fixed width and height values. Using max- and min-height values and percentages are ways to make your designs respond to the viewer’s browser size.
• Combining floats and clears with inline and relative positions allow the elements to adjust gracefully to their container’s width.
• Showing and hiding content with Javascript.

For more information view “Make a Theme Responsive”: